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Trials of the Wolfeater: Rebirth, Prologue
Part 1 Prologue March, 1016 They say it is dawn, yet I know not the difference. Too long have I been trapped here, too long have the eyes of strangers prodded me with uncaring glances like I were some… fecal-drenched statue. I have given up hope that I will be rescued, and I am resigned to say that this will be my last entry in this journal. Lin has said that tomorrow my time with the order will be finished, so one can well surmise my fate. Hopefully she has the common decency to fulfill my death warrant herself. Should she sic her wolves on me than Húrin help me I will haunt her from beyond death. So now I will take this moment to reflect on those that I have wronged. Maybe my death will somehow atone for my sins. To my father Enris and my mother Ellintha, I hope you are still alive and well. Had I the chance, I would visit you in Westhome and make amends. Though I found Húrin by leaving you, I am not sure it was yet my time to do so. I am proud of you both. If you knew what I had become, I pray you would be proud of me too. To my brother Sorather, my promise to slay 1,000 orcs in your name has unfortunately fallen short. I believe I am at 33 orcs at this moment, a touch shy of the initial quarry. Hopefully that will be enough for you; if not, you’re out of luck. I’m not in the best of circumstances to rectify this. May we see each other soon, and may you see how I’ve grown. To Sky, I hope I have avenged you. To Antro, may you soon learn that revenge is a poison. Do not let it lead you to a bitter, hollow end. You are better than that. To Dayr, I am sorry. I was not the man you thought I was, even though I tried to be. To the former Second Legion, I will join you soon. Do not hate me. To Sirfung… To Ela, I wish you well wherever you are. May we never meet again. To Vira, may Unquala weep for you. Rest well on your final Sojourn, and I am sorry that my shield was not strong enough. To Belkar, shove off, get a job, and may your stout and mead be ever stronger than last you had them. To Rachel, I should never have made you read that book. You were young and kind and everything right with the world and I took you from it because I was afraid. May Unquala weep for you for ages endless. To Logar, I am sorry you loved Rachel. You were right to hate me. You were wrong to fight me on even ground. I wish you well, wherever your spirit may drift. You deserved to live. You should never have met me. To Lin; fuck you. To Nex, please stay out of trouble. And since I know you can’t, at least find someone to watch your back. I’ll be busy being dead so I can’t do it for you anymore. Stay lucky, you’ll find your way some day. Also, get rid of that bloody sword if you still have it. It doesn’t match your complexion. To Aurilus, continue thy sojourn. You are a wise, kind soul trapped under the burden of nightmares which haunt you. Give them unto Húrin, become the blade in the darkness I never could be. You will make me proud, wherever I am. To Greyne, Lancerus needs your blade. Do not stop fighting, never stop fighting. There is darkness growing in this world, and the light needs champions. Had I the power I would have shown you Húrin’s ways, but perhaps yet another will. You owe me a duel when next we meet. Lastly, to Keirina. I do not know what to say, really. There was still so much we had to do, and I feel like I was never enough for you. I was afraid to move forward, as I always have been. You made me… less afraid. If only I had you in my arms now, for I am more afraid than ever. I love you. Until next our paths cross, Lancerus, I shall bid you a peaceful sojourn. - Sinthaster Volrough, Wolfeater of Daggerwood and Captain of the Darkmoon Saints ……… “It is time.” I was led, bound by rusted chain and soaking cloth, to a clearing in the woods. Though my eyes were barred from blessed day I could hear the whims of birds and the snapping of tender twigs beneath my feet. It was warm for a March afternoon. The forest drank of melting ice, and I could hear wilting branches shrugging off the weight of pure-white snow. It was peaceful. Yet as I walked I was plagued by a burning pain; By the Gods how I ached. My body’s routine had been one of stagnation these last… nine months? I could not be sure, the bitch ordered her cohorts to withhold the days from me. I barely knew the month alone, blessed be the ramblings of mindless watchmen. “Here,” I heard a voice say. My weight wrenched me from the hands of the soldiers and I plummeted to the earthen floor. With my hands still bound behind me, I had no means to catch myself; the earth was quick to meet me. “Get up, Saint,” Lin said, her coarse, throaty warble of a voice mocking my pain. I must have looked a sickly child; well, save for my grotesque beard and horrid man-stench. As I began to stand my blindfold was yanked from my face and my chains unbound. Light stung my eyes as the image of untamed green exploded into my vision. It was the first nature I had seen in so long, and never before had I felt such an urge to eat grass. Then I noticed my old shield staring at me, its crescent-moon face just as I had remembered it before my capture. “Pick it up,” Lin said. I did not want to play her games. Whatever fate she had chosen for me, let us be done with it. “Lin,” I said, my voice akin to a child’s whisper in the night, “let Húrin judge me. Why pester me still? Are you so without diversion that torturing me is the only way you get off?” She did not move, nor did she object to my whimpering with a dry wit or retaliation on my character. Her face was tense, and so too were the Darkmoon surrounding me. They were waiting not for her; they were waiting for me. She did not have to ask again; I moved forward and gently pulled the shield to my body. It was heavier than I remembered, yet still felt familiar to me. “Now,” Lin said. “Conjure the Gate.” Hurin’s Gate? She wanted me to invoke the cantrip? “Why?” I said, the shield now in battle position against my body as if it would do any good. “Sinthaster,” she said. “Let me offer you my word as a Darkmoon.” Implying that has merit anymore. “If you are able to invoke the cantrip, no one else need die.” “What mean you by this, Soraus?” I said, my voice rising. “Did you really think that we would let your Darkmoon underlings escape us? Aurilus and Keirina, yes? They were difficult to track down, particularly the girl. Slippery one, that. I see why you like her so much.” I felt my resignation boil to rage. “You lie.” I said. With that she threw a small locket at my feet. It had been Keirina’s, for I had given it to her. It was shattered beyond repair. “If you are not able to conjure the symbol,” Lin resumed, “then all of you will die. I will pile their bodies on top of yours as I bury you alive so that the last thing you hear in this miserable world is the worms of the earth gnawing away at the bloating flesh of your loved ones. This will be, of course, after I let my wolves at them for a spell.” I charged, blinded with rage. My skull cracked against the butt of Lin’s pommel and I collapsed like a rotting tree. “You have three minutes, Wolfeater,” she spat down at me. “If you do not have Húrin’s Gate upon your shield in three minutes time, let me know so I can dig a larger grave.” She left me there, a sad crumpled heap of former Darkmoon to contemplate my end. I would see her burn for this. Somehow, even if I had to claw my way back from the fires of the afterlife, I would see her pay. Húrin damn her. I fell upon my loins and gazed at the canopy above, the weight of my fury pressing down on my chest like an anvil. She had no reason to lie to me. She was cruel, it was true, but I had always known her to be honest in her cruelty. Even for a woman so well versed in the art of maniacal teasing, this was beyond what I could have fathomed. Damn bitch. If it is the only way to quicken my end then I’ll play her game. When I manage the Gate I’ll be sure to smack it across her face one last time. Even if I leave this world I’ll be sure to leave my mark before I go, especially if that mark is forever on Lin’s smarmy smile. So I stood and, with my right hand upon the face of the shield, began to chant the words first spoken by the Darkmoon of old: May the Silent Sword Of blackest night Keep bright the longest day, '' '' May Húrin’s hand Make right my path And choose where I shall lay, '' '' May vengeance strong Of Knights of Iron Sing within my hand, '' '' May Seven’s might Decree my right To guard the hearts of men, '' '' May the blessings of Húrin be upon me, and Upon those whom he has entrusted to me. I waited to feel the energy flow, for Húrin’s gift to light upon my shield and emblazon the Darkmoon crest in glory. I waited for the power that I had wielded so often before. And still I waited. And nothing came. “What is this?” I thought. My stomach began to rise into my throat. What have they done to me? “This is cruelty!” I roared to the sky, knowing Lin could hear me from wherever she watched. “You dare to make me recite the Hymn, knowing that it would be fruitless?” My eyes stung with tears. “You will pay, you will all pay!” I rushed the closest guard. He wore full plate, his height and mass far exceeding my own. I did not care. I careened into him as a wild boar might have done, my fury like Húrin’s own. I grasped madly for his sword, hoping to disarm him before he could retaliate. I gnashed my teeth and kicked and screamed, though I may as well have been throwing a tantrum. I was soon pulled away from him by the other guard, and both of them were no worse for having endured my bout of rage. They flung me to the ground, my anger stewing into a deep depression. It was then that Lin appeared again. Her face was stoic, as Dayr’s had once been the night of Sirfung’s fall. “Why…” I managed. “Sinthaster,” she said more softly than I was accustomed. “All is not as it seems.” I looked up to see her holding my Darkmoon sash, the worn purple fabric swaying gently in the breeze that caressed my broken form. They took it from me the night I was captured. “You are reborn, Sin,” she said matter-of-factly. She threw the sash before me and beckoned me to rise. “Come.” ……… We walked now, Lin and myself and 5 of her Darkmoon, back towards the keep that had been my living tomb for so long. I had never actually seen its stony face. How quaint a thing it was, more a glorified rock hut than the grand dungeon I had imagined myself in. We were far removed from any major thoroughfare from what I could gather; no one must even know this place exists. I was beginning to question why I had been imprisoned at all, now. “Sinthaster, I would have you know something,” Lin said as she came to rest upon a stump near the entrance to the small building. “I do not like you as a Darkmoon sister should. Rather, I hate you.” She paused as I contemplated lunging at her. “But,” she said, “it is not your fault. And now, more than ever, I must overcome my prejudice because…” She withdrew her sword and, with a powerful thrust, drove it into the ground before her. “Because I need your help.” I did not try to contain myself this time. I pounced on her and began the process of driving my fists into her face like a rabid animal overcome with bloodlust. She was quick to squirm between my strikes but still my knuckles found the occasional mark upon her nose and jaw. My arms had atrophied in that dark cell but I would make her bleed ''before I stopped. Her soldiers did not move to stop me. I did not care to wonder why. As I tired I looked upon my work; bleed she did. With no strength left I crumpled on top of her, panting and crying as she tasted her broken lips. “I will pay the price for my lies,” she said, spitting up blood into my hair. “But I will not apologize for doing what had to be done.” I pulled myself off of her, half a mind to pull her sword from the ground and cleave her pursed lips off that pale face. “What do you mean, ‘doing what had to be done’?” I growled. She stood slowly, blood draining from her face and soaking her chin and neck. A Darkmoon moved to help; she waved them back. It seems they knew I would do this. By the Gods I needed to. “Tell me, Sin,” she said. “Why have the Darkmoon not been sent to deal with the Hand of Men?” I paused. I admit I had thought of this myself many times, though the last year had seen myself preoccupied with other concerns. “Or,” she continued, “Where is our involvement in the rise of the prophet, Lidiya? Is she not guarded by your very friend, Nex Belain? Why are we not at least talking with them?” I did not know. “Or,” she exclaimed, “Why is the tension in Gildor not being eased? Have we not paired with the Wolf Knights before? Their kingdom is in need of assistance, where are we?” I… did not know. “Sinthaster,” she said, leaning in close as if to guard her words from unsavory ears. “The Darkmoon have been corrupted.” I snarled. “How ''dare ''you accuse the order of betrayal.” “Not the whole order, Wolfeater,” she said. “Merely the crown: Renly and the Elder Judges. The old shits who sit in Blackmist and order us to bow to their silly whims. Long had I suspected that something was wrong but the Godswalk has shown me true. You remember Dayr?” “Of course,” I said. I know she did too. And I know she missed him, as I now missed my Keirina. “He thought this too. We spoke often of this, of how the Judges were seemingly not interested in true Justice but rather in self-preservation. Dayr and I discussed in secret and he told me that he planned to uncover their motives. I begged him not to, but, you know Dayr…” She trailed away, losing herself in sentiment. Underneath her warrior’s exterior was a girl who had once been in love, who had once wanted to uphold justice and make Lancerus a safer place for the free peoples. War had changed her. “Dayr found something peculiar during his stays at Blackmist; Darkmoon recruitment had all but halted, and the head of our order, Renly Galiron, had been seemingly consumed within the halls of the Five Elders.” “What do you mean?” “Renly is our Lord Commander, aye? When was the last time he actually ''commanded ''anything? When, in fact, was the last time you even ''saw ''him?” I thought for a moment. In truth, I believe I had only ever seen Renly once before; at my coronation. He seemed a distracted man at the time, as if he had been disinterested in the ceremony. I had not even known he was our Lord Commander until someone else had pointed it out to me. “Dayr had once been close with Renly, as you and Nex once were. Whenever Dayr would attempt to meet with Renly recently, however, something seemed different about him. It was seemingly not the same man, as if someone was wearing the skin of our Lord Commander and merely acting in his stead.” “Are you implying that people cannot change, as so many of us have?” “I’m implying,” Lin said, “that Renly is dead.” She produced a small slip of weathered parchment. “And whoever is ''pretending to be Renly knew that Dayr was sniffing about.” She handed me the parchment, gesturing for me to read it. Dated November 17th, 1010 the note read: Lin, Something is wrong. Hide this from the eyes of other Darkmoon, I am not sure who to trust. Renly is not himself anymore, and someone is pulling the strings of the Elder Judges. There is a mysterious woman amongst their number as well, though she seems to vanish just as soon as I catch her glimpse. By Húrin’s will I shall uncover what darkness moves through our ranks before it is too late. Seven Guide us both, my heart is always yours, Dayr Wait. That date… my mind slowly began to realize something very wrong. “The next day,” Lin said softly, “The Second Legion was ordered to kill Sirfung the White Wolf.” I felt myself grow cold. “No one was expected to survive, Sinthaster. It was a preemptive strike to quell the resistance rising in our ranks. A culling. A genocide.” She waited, allowing me time to process this profound claim. “When you were the sole survivor, a young squire, they saw no harm in promoting you to ‘captain’. You fell neatly into their scheme, doing little to rebuild the Second Legion and buying them time to complete their plans, whatever those plans are. Until you began changing, that is.” I looked at her now not with hatred as so often I had before. Rather, I felt that she had somehow endured my same fate; that we were kindred in some way I had not known of before. “When you defeated Frogock and won Darshia from the Elves, the Judges knew you were coming into your own and may become a threat. So, knowing full well that I blamed you for Dayr’s death and was your superior in combat, I was tasked with your capture… and execution.” “Execution?” I gasped. “How did they rationalize this?” “They didn’t. My task was to be secret, and so it was as far as they are aware. Their reasoning as was told to me was your ‘insubordination’ was dangerous for the continued survival of the Saints. I was not given much information beyond that. According to the official Darkmoon records, Sinthaster the Wolfeater perished on the road to Arkrest many months ago at the hands of common thieves.” I lurched forward. “Aurilus, Keirina; where are they?” Lin sighed. “I do not know. They escaped us, taking down some of my men in the process.” There was a beat of profound silence. My mind swirled with questions and possibilities. “Why, Lin? Why the deception? Why the imprisonment?” “One of the things Dayr uncovered before his demise was that the captains of the Darkmoon could be tracked by the Judges. The first time you used Hurin’s Gate you placed upon yourself a mark; that mark could be sensed by the Judges from anywhere, so long as you weren’t underground. It took nine months of being underground to break the spell completely. In their minds, you have been dead since the first time you went underground. When you left the underground cell, that was our test. If you could no longer invoke Húrin’s Gate, it meant the spell was abolished. Now, even above ground, they can no longer feel you.” She smirked, “let’s keep it that way.” I did not know why; perhaps it was because of how hungry and delirious I was or perhaps it was Húrin Himself guiding me. “What would you have me do?” Lin produced a small envelope sealed with the stamp of the… the Govan Elves? “Sinthaster the Wolfeater, what do you know of the Wraith Realm?” ……… Category:World Lore